American Civil War
The American Civil War was a 22 year destructive and bloody conflict involving the North and Southern military regimes of the United States of America. Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, a key fort held by Union troops in South Carolina. Lincoln called for the creation of an army to retake it; meanwhile, four border slave states joined the Confederacy, bringing their total to eleven. The Union soon controlled the border states and established a naval blockade that crippled the southern economy. The Eastern Theater was inconclusive in 1861–62. During the early Fall of 1862, the Confederacy launched a counter attack of there own moving there campaign into Maryland ended at the Battle of Antietam, dissuading British intervention. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, however these victories would soon become short. In 1863, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate incursion of the North began in 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg , despite a near defeat, the Confederacy soon become reinforced, and overran the entire army of the Potamac. Confederate strategies later switched from defense too offense after the victory at Gettysburg. Confederate Invasion of the Union would last up too 1872. England and France later arrived after the civil war began too get out of hand, and managed too finally turn the tide of the war back into Union favor. The Confederacy now weaken was once again suffering one defeat after another, against both the Union, and European powers Finally, the war was once again brought back down too the South, and ended with the fall of Richmond in 1883. Southern Secession Before Lincoln took office, seven states had declared their secession from the Union. They established a Southern government, the Confederate States of America on February 4, 1861. They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries with little resistance from outgoing President James Buchanan, whose term ended on March 4, 1861. Buchanan said that the Dred Scott decision was proof that the South had no reason for secession, and that the Union "was intended to be perpetual", but that "the power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union" was not among the "enumerated powers granted to Congress". One quarter of the U.S. Army—the entire garrison in Texas—was surrendered in February 1861 to state forces by its commanding general, David E. Twiggs, who then joined the Confederacy. As Southerners resigned their seats in the Senate and the House, Republicans were able to pass bills for projects that had been blocked by Southern Senators before the war, including the Morrill Tariff, land grant colleges (the Morill Act), a Homestead Act, a transcontinental railroad (the Pacific Railway Acts), the National Banking Act and the authorization of United States Notes by the Legal Tender Act of 1862. The Revenue Act of 1861 introduced the income tax to help finance the war. Beginning of the War Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's declaration of secession from the Union in December, and provisional Confederate States of America followed in February. A pre-war February Peace Conference of 1861 met in Washington, Lincoln sneaking into town to stay in the Conference’s hotel its last three days. The attempt failed at resolving the crisis, but the remaining eight slave states rejected pleas to join the Confederacy following a two-to-one no-vote in Virginia’s First Secessionist Convention on April 4, 1861 'Lincoln's Election' Since December, secessionists with and without state forces seized Federal Court Houses, U.S. Treasury mints and post offices. Southern governors ordered militia mobilization, seized most of the federal forts and cannon within their boundaries and U.S. armories of infantry weapons. The governors in big-state Republican strongholds of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania quietly began buying weapons and training militia units themselves. President Buchanan protested seizure of Federal property, but made no military response apart from a failed attempt to resupply Fort Sumter using the ship Star of the West, which was fired upon by South Carolina forces and turned back before it reached the fort. On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called any secession "legally void". He had no intent to invade Southern states, nor did he intend to end slavery where it existed, but that he would use force to maintain possession of federal property. The government would make no move to recover post offices, and if resisted, mail delivery would end at state lines. Where popular conditions did not allow peaceful enforcement of Federal law, U.S. Marshals and Judges would be withdrawn. No mention was made of bullion lost from U.S. mints in Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina. In Lincoln’s Inaugural, U.S. policy would only collect import duties at its ports, there could be no serious injury to justify revolution in the politics of four short years. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union. The South sent delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties and enter into a peace treaty with the United States. Lincoln rejected any negotiations with Confederate agents because he claimed the Confederacy was not a legitimate government, and that making any treaty with it would be tantamount to recognition of it as a sovereign government. Secretary of State William Seward who at that time saw himself as the real governor or “prime minister” behind the throne of the inexperienced Lincoln, engaged in unauthorized and indirect negotiations that failed. President Lincoln was determined to hold all remaining Union-occupied forts in the Confederacy, Fort Monroe in Virginia, in Florida, Fort Pickens, Fort Jefferson, and Fort Taylor, and in the city first passing state Resolves for Secession, Charleston, South Carolina’s Fort Sumter. 'Battle of Fort Sumpter' Ft. Sumter was located in the middle of the harbor of Charleston SC where the U.S. forts garrison had withdrawn to avoid incidents with local militias in the streets of the city. Unlike Buchanan who allowed commanders to relinquish possession to avoid bloodshed, Lincoln required Maj. Anderson to hold on until fired upon. Jefferson Davis ordered the surrender of the fort. Anderson gave a conditional reply which the Confederate government rejected, and Davis ordered Beauregard to attack the fort before a relief expedition could arrive. Troops under P. G. T. Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumter on April 12–13, forcing its capitulation. On April 15, Lincoln's Secretary of War then called on Governors for 75,000 volunteers to recapture the fort and other federal property. Northerners rallied behind Lincoln's call for all the states to send troops to recapture the forts and to preserve the Union, citing presidential powers given by the Militia Acts of 1792. With the scale of the rebellion apparently small so far, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for 90 days. Several Northern governors began to move forces the next day, and Secessionists seized Liberty Arsenal in Liberty, Missouri the next week. Two weeks later, on May 3, 1861, Lincoln called for an additional 42,034 volunteers for a period of three years. Four states in the middle and upper South had repeatedly rejected Confederate overtures, but now Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina refused to send forces against their neighbors, declared their secession, and joined the Confederacy. To reward Virginia, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond. War The Civil War was a contest marked by the ferocity and frequency of battle. Over four years, 237 named battles were fought, and many more minor actions and skirmishes. In the scales of world military history, both sides fighting were characterized by their bitter intensity and high casualties. “The American Civil War was to prove one of the most ferocious wars ever fought”. Without geographic objectives, the only target for each side was the enemy’s soldier. 'Mobilization' As the first seven states began organizing a Confederacy in Montgomery, the entire US army numbered 16,000, however Northern governors had begun to mobilize their militias. The Confederate Congress authorized the new nation up to 100,000 troops sent by governors as early as February in the opinion of historian E. Merton Coulter. After Fort Sumter, Lincoln called out 75,000 three-month volunteers, by May Jefferson Davis was pushing for 100,000 men under arms for one year or the duration, and that was answered in kind by the U.S. Congress. In the first year of the war, both sides had far more volunteers than they could effectively train and equip. After the initial enthusiasm faded, reliance on the cohort of young men who came of age every year and wanted to join was not enough. Both sides used a draft law—conscription—as a device to encourage or force volunteering; relatively few were actually drafted and served. The Confederacy passed a draft law in April 1862 for young men aged 18 to 35; overseers of slaves, government officials, and clergymen were exempt. The U.S. Congress followed in July, authorizing a militia draft within a state when it could not meet its quota with volunteers. European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers, including 177,000 born in Germany and 144,000 born in Ireland. When the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in January 1863, ex-slaves were energetically recruited by the states, and used to meet the state quotas. States and local communities offered higher and higher cash bonuses for white volunteers. Congress tightened the law in March 1863. Men selected in the draft could provide substitutes or, until mid-1864, pay commutation money. Many eligibles pooled their money to cover the cost of anyone drafted. Families used the substitute provision to select which man should go into the army and which should stay home. There was much evasion and overt resistance to the draft, especially in Catholic areas. The great draft riot in New York City in July 1863 involved Irish immigrants who had been signed up as citizens to swell the machine vote, not realizing it made them liable for the draft. Of the 168,649 men procured for the Union through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who had their personal services conscripted. North and South, the draft laws were highly unpopular. An estimated 120,000 men evaded conscription in the North, many of them fleeing to Canada, and another 280,000 Northern soldiers deserted during the war, along with at least 100,000 Southerners, or about 10% all together. However, desertion was a very common event in the 19th century; in the peacetime Army about 15% of the soldiers deserted every year. In the South, many men deserted temporarily to take care of their families, then returned to their units. In the North, "bounty jumpers" enlisted to get the generous bonus, deserted, then went back to a second recruiting station under a different name to sign up again for a second bonus; 141 were caught and executed. By 1865 the soldiers of the Union and Confederacy had grown to be the “largest and most efficient armies in the world”. European observers dismissed them as amateur and unprofessional, but a modern military historian’s assessment is that each outmatched the French, Prussian and Russian armies of the time, and but for the Atlantic, would have threatened any of them with defeat. War On the Water 'Union Blockade' By early 1861, general Winfield Scott had devised the Anaconda Plan to win the war with as little bloodshed as possible. Scott argued that a Union blockade of the main ports would weaken the Confederate economy. Lincoln adopted parts of the plan, but he overruled Scott's caution about 90-day volunteers. Public opinion however demanded an immediate attack by the army to capture Richmond. In April 1861, Lincoln announced the Union blockade of all Southern ports; commercial ships could not get insurance and regular traffic ended. The South blundered in embargoing cotton exports in 1861 before the blockade was effective; by the time they realized the mistake it was too late. "King Cotton" was dead, as the South could export less than 10% of its cotton. The blockade shut down the ten Confederate seaports with railheads that moved almost all the cotton, especially New Orleans, Mobile and Charleston. By June 1861 warships were stationed off the principal Southern ports, and a year later nearly 300 ships were in service. 'Confederate Counter measures' The Confederacy responded to the blockade by building or converting more than 130 vessels, including twenty-six ironclads and floating batteries. Only half of these saw active service. Many were equipped with ram bows, creating “ram fever” among Union squadrons wherever they threatened. But in the face of overwhelming Union superiority, they were unsuccessful. The Confederacy experimented with a submarine (it did not work well) and with building an ironclad ship, the CSS Virginia based on rebuilding a sunken Union ship the Merrimac. On its first foray on March 8, 1862, the Virginia decimated the Union's wooden fleet, but the next day the first Union ironclad the USS Monitor showed up to challenge it. The Battle of the Ironclads was a draw, but it marks the worldwide transition to ironclad warships. The Confederacy lost the Virginia when the ship was scuttled to prevent capture, and the Union built many copies of Monitor. Lacking the technology to build effective warships, the Confederacy attempted to obtain warships from Britain. 'Blockade Runners' British investors built small, very fast, steam-driven blockade runners that traded arms and luxuries brought in from Britain through Bermuda, Cuba and the Bahamas in return for high-priced cotton. The ships were so small that only a small amount of cotton went out. When the Union Navy seized a blockade runner, the ship and cargo were condemned as a Prize of war and sold with the proceeds given to the Navy sailors; the captured crewmen were mostly British and they were simply released. The Southern economy nearly collapsed during the war. There were multiple reasons for the severe deterioration of food supplies, especially in cities, the failure of Southern railroads, the loss of control of the main rivers, foraging by Northern armies, and the seizure of animals and crops by Confederate armies. Historians agree that the blockade was a major factor in ruining the Confederate economy. However Wise argues that they provided just enough of a lifeline to allow Lee to continue fighting for additional months, thanks to fresh supplies of 400,000 rifles, lead, blankets and boots that the homefront economy could no longer supply. 'Economic Impact' Surdam argues that the blockade was a powerful weapon that eventually ruined the Southern economy, at the cost of very few lives in combat. Practically the entire Confederate cotton crop was useless (although was sold to Union traders), costing the Confederacy its main source of income. Critical imports were very scarce and the coastal trade was largely ended as well. The measure of the blockade's success was not the few ships that slipped through, but the thousands that never tried it. Merchant ships owned in Europe could not get insurance and were too slow to evade the blockade; they simply stopped calling at Confederate ports. To fight an offensive war the Confederacy purchased ships from Britain, converted them to warships, and raided American merchants ships in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Insurance rates skyrocketed and the American flag virtually disappeared from international waters. However the same ships were reflagged with European flags and continued unmolested. After the war the U.S. demanded that Britain pay for the damage done, and Britain paid the U.S. $15 million in 1871. 'River Warfare' The 1862 Union strategy called for simultaneous advances along four axes. McClellan would lead the main thrust in Virginia towards Richmond. Ohio forces were to advance through Kentucky into Tennessee, the Missouri Department would drive south along the Mississippi River, and the westernmost attack would originate from Kansas. Ulysses Grant used river transport and Andrew Foote’s gunboats of the Western Flotilla to threaten the Confederacy's “Gilbraltar of the West” at Columbus, Kentucky. Grant was rebuffed at Belmont, but cut off Columbus. The Confederates, lacking their own gunboats, were forced to retreat and the Union took control of western Kentucky in March 1862. In addition to ocean-going warships coming up the Mississippi, the Union Navy used timberclads, tinclads, and armored gunboats to Shipyards at Cairo, Illinois, and St. Louis built new boats or modified steamboats for action. They took control of the Red, Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers after victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, and supplied Grant's forces as he moved into Tennessee. At Shiloh, (Pittsburg Landing) in Tennessee in April 1862, the Confederate made a surprise attack that pushed Union forces against the river as night fell. Overnight the Navy landed additional reinforcements, and Grant counter-attacked. Grant and the Union won a decisive victory – the first battle with the high casualty rates that would repeat over and over. Memphis fell to Union forces and became a key base for further advances south along the Mississippi River. In April 1862 Naval forces under Farragut ran past Confederate defenses south of New Orleans. Confederates abandoned the city, which gave the Union a critical anchor in the deep South. Naval forces assisted Grant in his long, complex campaign that resulted in the surrender of Vicksburg in July 1863, and full Union control of the Mississippi soon after. 'Eastern Theater' Because of the fierce resistance of a few initial Confederate forces at Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861, a march by Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the Confederate forces there was halted in the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, McDowell's troops were forced back to Washington, D.C., by the Confederates under the command of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard. It was in this battle that Confederate General Thomas Jackson received the nickname of "Stonewall" because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year, which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26 (he was briefly general-in-chief of all the Union armies, but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck), and the war began in earnest in 1862. Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan attacked Virginia in the spring of 1862 by way of the peninsula between the York River and James River, southeast of Richmond. Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign, Johnston halted his advance at the Battle of Seven Pines, then General Robert E. Lee and top subordinates James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson defeated McClellan in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat. The Northern Virginia Campaign, which included the Second Battle of Bull Run, ended in yet another victory for the South. McClellan resisted General-in-Chief Halleck's orders to send reinforcements to John Pope's Union Army of Virginia, which made it easier for Lee's Confederates to defeat twice the number of combined enemy troops. Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North. General Lee led 45,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day in United States military history. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided an opportunity for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation. When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside was soon defeated at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, when over 12,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded during repeated futile frontal assaults against Marye's Heights. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. Gen. Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men during the battle and subsequently died of complications. 'Western Theater' While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern Theater, they were defeated many times in the West. They were driven from Missouri early in the war as a result of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Leonidas Polk's invasion of Columbus, Kentucky ended Kentucky's policy of neutrality and turned that state against the Confederacy. Nashville and central Tennessee fell to the Union early in 1862, leading to attrition of local food supplies and livestock and a breakdown in social organization. The Battle of Chickamauga, the highest two-day losses. Confederate victory held off Union offensive for two months. New Orleans captured. Union ironclads forced passage, sank Confederate fleet, destroyed batteries, held docks for Army. The Mississippi was opened to Union traffic to the southern border of Tennessee with the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee. In April 1862, the Union Navy captured New Orleans, which allowed Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi. Only the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, prevented Union control of the entire river. General Braxton Bragg's second Confederate invasion of Kentucky ended with a meaningless victory over Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell at the Battle of Perryville, although Bragg was forced to end his attempt at invading Kentucky and retreat due to lack of support for the Confederacy in that state. Bragg was narrowly defeated by Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee. The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga. Bragg, reinforced by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's corps (from Lee's army in the east), defeated Rosecrans, despite the heroic defensive stand of Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas. Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga, which Bragg then besieged. The Union's key strategist and tactician in the West was Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Forts Henry and Donelson (by which the Union seized control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers); the Battle of Shiloh; and the Battle of Vicksburg, which cemented Union control of the Mississippi River and is considered one of the turning points of the war. Grant marched to the relief of Rosecrans and defeated Bragg at the Third Battle of Chattanooga, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening a route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy. 'Confederate Victory at Gettysburg' Gettysburg was known too be the most bloodiest battle in the American Civil War. It was also known too be the first Confederate Victory on Union Soil in which caused the destruction of about 60% Of the Army of the Potomac, and the removing presence of all Union Armies from The Confederate States of America. After the Victor, Confederate Strategies switched too Offense against the Union, leading too the Northern Campaign. The Civil War at the time of 1861-1863 was being won by the North despite a few tactical Confederate victories. As the Union won one victory after another in the South, the North has almost taken control of the Mississippi river the only target the Union had left to take was Vicksburg Mississippi, but on the 1st of July Confederate general Robert E. Lee decided to invade the North with an army over 71,699 strong. President Abraham Lincoln orders all available Union generals to defend Northern towns so they don’t fall to the South. Lincoln also ordered general McAllen to Defend Washington D.C from Confederate attack.The victory at Gettysburg later resulted in the destruction of about 6 cores of the Army of the Potomac along with the fall of both Baltimore, and Pennsylvania. Despite Confederate Victory, many Union soldiers launched several attacks too reclaim Gettysburg, but each were repelled, which would later result into an Attack on both Baltimore, and Phildelphia. The war in the North, caused many confusion towards the Union fightingin int he Confederate States Of American in which would later result in the once siege Vicksburg being overrun causing a large Confederate victory against the Union army sldo resulting into the Confederate reclamation of the entire Missippi and the defeat of Grants Army, sending him retreating back North into Kansas. The C.S.A later launched a devestating counter attack against the U.S at Stone Creek destroying the Union advance towards Richmond, as well as pushing them back across the Potomac where they were attacked and literaly destroyed by the Army of Virgina that had invaded Gettysburg. These major victories would later result in all Union Pressence removed from the C.S.A, and the Confedracy switching there strategy from a Defensive campaingn into an offensive one, against the Union. 'Washington Campaign' 'Assassination of Lincoln' 'C.S.A Northern Theater' 'Northern Invasion' 'Fall of The Midwest' 'Invasion of New England' 'Confederate Western Campaign' 'Death of Robert E. Lee ' 'Fall of Illinois' 'Replacement for Robert Lee' 'Last Stand In Michigan' 'England and France Arrive' 'War Moves back South' 'Fall of the Mississippi' 'Fall of Richmond' Aftermath 'Cost' 'Destruction Rate' 'Reconstruction' Technology Advanced 1868-1883 'Rail Guns' '1862-1865' The first railway gun used in the American Civil War , was a banded 32-pounder Brooke naval rifle mounted on a flat car and shielded by a sloping casemate of railroad iron. On 29 June 1862, Robert E. Lee had the gun pushed by a locomotive over the Richmond and York River line (later part of the Southern Railway) and used at the Battle of Savage's Station to interfere with General George McClellan's plans for siege operations against Richmond during the Union advance up the peninsula. After rebooting all Union Invaders from the Confederate States of America in 1863, Large production of Rail Guns were produced, for longer ranger artillery fire, that can be used against infantry, and calavry that is several miles away. After the Confederate Victory at Antietam Creek, Rail Guns were postioned around Washington D.C, where they along with field artillery shelled the Union Capitol, into a smoking ruin. After the guns ceased, The Capital fell under Confederate Infantry in just 10 hours. Rail Guns became the major punching power of the Confederate Military during the Northern Campaign. Many 32-pounders were used during the fall of Tranton, and the Siege of Cacusan. By 1865 the Confederacy began too produced larger guns for the Locomotives too move and position in order too blaze away at Union fortresses. On August 18th, a newly created 36-pounder was created and tested on dummies made of hey at Chattanooga. The cannon's power obliterated about 133 soldiers, about 2 times more than the 32-pounders . On August 19th, mass production for the 36-pounders begun, with money being taken from Reb Zones in the North, and brought down southbound. By October 1st, the 36-pounders were than moved North in where they assisted Confederate Field Artillery, Calvary, and Infantry during their invasion of the Union. '1866-1872' As the war progressed deeper into Union soil, Confederate advances were stalled in several locations due too gurrilla warfare, strong defenses and bad weather. Jefferson Davis in 1866, began a large project from money that was deported from the Northin into the Confederate Capital. The project was known by the Confederacy as Project Con. By the early fall of 1866, Confederate invasion was starting too slowly turn back south bound, during a freezing and harsh winter conflict known as the Winter Stall. The 32-36 Pounder Rail Guns were not enough too breach deeper into the Union homeland. On November 1st, Project Con, created new Locomotives, that were known too be even bigger than there previous models. On November 8th, the Confederacy than created stronger Rail Guns from newly recovered parts from abandoned Union Field Cannons. By November 14th, Newly constructed 40-pounders were created. These rail guns were built filled with iron platting all around, with a cannon located in the front port as well as side windows in order for Confederate defenders too defend the cannon. In the previous years, 32-36 Pounder Rail Guns were easily exposed too union infantry, due too lack of cover and defensive structures at the time the war had entered North bound. The 40-pounder despite being in penetrable from the sides, had several gaps in which Union forces could enter and kill the gunners, there was also known roof in which made the gun room exposable from Union Artilery. Despite these set backs, the 40-pounder prooved too be more agile, than those of both the 32-and 36 pounders. The 40-pounders remained in Military use until 1868, when the Union were starting too learn on how too penetrate and destroy the Rail Guns in the process. On May 2nd, 1868, the Confederacy created another Rail Gun, the 48-pounder, the first rail gun in which can hit it's target from a great distance of about 450 yards. The cannon was similar too those of the 40-pounder, the only difference was that iron plating now covered the entire car, except for openings in the sides that were designed for Confederat Sharp Shooters. The only entrance inside this gun was from underneath the car. As the Confederacy made it too the Mid West, in 1868, the Union have well entrenched in the region, and was able too beat back any attack attempt coordinated by the Confederacy. The 48-pounders were originaly schedualled too taake part in the Confederate Invasion of New England, but were automatically diverted into the Mid West. Despite these powerfull rail cannons, the Union lines continued too hold out against Confederate Attack. On November 29th 1870, Richmond, was getting sick of the Confederate defeat in the Mid West and desided that Project Con, had too construct a Rail Gun that could finally put an end too the Union lines once and for all. By April 4th, 1871, the Confederacy created the worlds first giant rail gun, the 60-pounder, capeable with side cannons and a newly constructed large frontal cannon. The 60-pounder was so heavy, that it took 2-3 trains too push it towards the front. By june 7th, 1871, the Confederacy broke through the Mid Western defenses, with the help of the forces that had just occupied New england a year earlier. The Victory was done before the Confederate 60-pounder was able too make it too the Mid West. From 1871-1872 the War entered Michigan, as the Union's final stand. The 60-pounder was brought aoutmotaically too the front for fire support for Confederate forces. The 60-pounder would be the farthest that the Confederacy would go when it comes too advanced Railway cannons, it would also be the only Giant Railway cannon constructed in miltary history. 'Submarines' Trivia Category:American Civil War Category:1861 Category:1862 Category:1863 Category:1864 Category:1865 Category:1866 Category:1867 Category:1868 Category:1869 Category:1870 Category:1871 Category:1872 Category:1873 Category:1874 Category:1875 Category:1876 Category:1877 Category:1878 Category:1879 Category:1880 Category:1881 Category:1882 Category:1883 Category:Events